Worst thing we could do. They have the talent the rest of the league needs for the next five years. The only way to stop them from being a juggernaut is to keep bleeding them of top talent to spread it out like other clubs.
GCS are less of a concern, but GWS player should be hunted hard.
And you can’t get them free without giving gws more first round picks.
its a ■■■■ ■■■■■■■ situation.
Realistically if a player like Kelly picks us as his club of choice and you offer up pick 8 (as the ladder stands now) and next year’s second (maybe 26 on this year’s ladder), what are they going to do?
Say no and let him walk to the draft for nothing?
Treloar was two firsts and Coll got pick 28 back. At the time he was arguably their best player and it was early days when GWS needed to ‘make a stand’. Surely they’d have to deal on a first and second.
If the Saints offer two first round picks this year (Hawthorn and their own) and he then agress to move to them, we have no way to counter that.
Of course. It only happens if Kelly says ‘i want to go to Essendon’. But that’s what happens with every player move these days. They all select their destination. We just have to convince him that we’re the club for him.
I believe this is what’s known as a ‘sticking point’…
I’d go to us.
Massive supporter base.
Biggest h/a games of the yr.
Best facilities.
Saga over.
Is it really that hard a sell?
see and the smell of the compromised draft just goes on…
All that and a good young list.
Exactly.
And as some in the know have said, plenty of mula.
Fk pay overs, let’s go for it.
And don’t forget - black & red is very chic.
Damn straight!
Our midfield is CACA. Bring in someone, anyone.
More than the Suns got
Not sure how we solve our midfield problem. A problem created in no small way by selecting Langford, Laverde, Francis, Begley etc, players who will never be decent midfielders and are showing no signs of being decent forwards either. Vanilla
Parish…tick
I love McGrath and he should be tried in the midfield now…not later.
Hocking Howlett Stanton Watson all cooked. Myers a stop gap mid only. Why he plays Stanton as a defender god only knows. I know he’s over the hill but he’s not a defender
We are miles off and will only drop off further unless Ridley Mutch and the kid who cant kick can stand up next year
Through rose colured glasses of course we would say choose us. As you said we have all that and more but it comes down to what the player wants. Money and security obviously are a big factor as is the ability to play in successful sides. Kelly has spent his whole career so far at a club building for success, does he want to do that all over again. In order of playing finals I’d have it as the Saints followed by us and Norf. A lot depends on if he wins a flag this year or not IMO. Personally I’d stay at GWS on $300k a year less to play finals every year
As a proponent of the vanilla terminology, I’d just like to point out that vanilla doesn’t mean bad. A player can be very good but also vanilla.
Parish is vanilla. Premium vanilla, the kind that comes in a black tub with fancy gold writing, but vanilla nevertheless. Francis is, I don’t know, some weird rocky road where you hope it’s more chocolate than glace cherries.
The academy is why it does not matter if you give them draft picks or not. How many non-academy kids have they taken of late?
You cannot stop them under the current system. May as well play for second best though and hope to steal one.
Francis is a Curly Wurly.
I’m of the opinion gws should be told ‘ok from 2019 onwards you can only draft players out of Western Sydney’ for a set period of time. That means they have a pool of 2 million people to pull from plus a few years to prepare and put work into the talented 15 year olds in the area. It gives back to the local area, means they are a true local team and dilutes the absolute shitload of an advantage they have been given over their first 5 to 7 years through the draft. At this rate anyone they get rid of just gives them more and more first round picks. I can’t exactly see where that will end either. It has the potential to become a Brisbane lions situation except a lot worse.